Metallica is one of the biggest bands on the planet. They sell enormous amounts of albums, are heavily streamed and their tours are incredibly lucrative.
Their relationship with online music services was initially fraught, as seen by their high-profile battle with Napster in 2000 over copyright infringement.
Now though, Metallica not only embraces digital music distribution, but they’ve looked a bit deeper and found a great application for the data it contains.
An article today quotes Spotify boss Daniel Ek claiming Metallica:
changes their setlist on a city-by-city basis just by looking at Spotify data to see, which the most popular songs happened to be in that city
While not confirmed at time of publication, the piece makes a good case and outlines how involved drummer Lars Ulrich is in crafting setlists for each city by cross-referencing previous tours in order to keep the songs played fresh for fans.
And ultimately it’s a small thing.
But it’s positive to see an organisation (let’s not pretend an operation the size of Metallica is anything less than big business) using the data available to them to deliver an enhanced consumer experience – with no boost to profits – wherever they may roam.